A POLICE special constable lost his leg when he was hit by a careless Worcester driver with defective tyres.

Good Samaritan and off-duty Droitwich special constable Benjamin Perry pulled over on the M42 to help another driver following an accident when Khadeja Perwez ploughed into him.

The 25-year-old of Avon Close, Worcester, admitted careless driving and driving with defective tyres at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday following the crash on the westbound carriageway of the M42 between junctions two and one on March 9 last year.

Dan White, prosecuting, said Perwez had been driving at excessive speed for the wet road conditions - around 70mph - despite illuminated warnings that drivers should reduce their speed to 50mph.

The driver of an Audi TT had already crashed, aquaplaning into the central reservation and ended up facing the wrong way in the fast lane before driving onto the hard shoulder. Mr Perry, a qualified lighting engineer, special constable and police community support officer, stopped to help, putting on a fluorescent yellow jacket and placing an orange flashing beacon on the roof of his Ford Focus. He was standing by the boot when he was struck by Perwez who aquaplaned into him in her BMW.

Mr Perry said in a victim impact statement: “I looked down and saw that my leg had gone and it was just a fleshy mess.”

He described screaming in pain and his vision beginning to blur but remembered seeing the still flashing beacon hanging off his car roof. Another driver stopped and applied a tourniquet to his leg. Mr Perry also suffered fractures to the left ankle of his other leg, a fractured spine and internal trauma to his chest and lungs.

What remained of his right leg was amputated below the knee and he had to have several debridement operations to shorten the stump. He spent 23 weeks in hospital, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and is permanently disabled. He suffers anxiety, depression and PTSD.

Mr Perry said: “I have been struggling with suicidal thoughts and have attempted to take my own life on one occasion.”

The two rear tyres were described as under-inflated and under the minimum tread depth which had been mentioned in the car’s last MOT as an advisory.

Alexander Stein, for Perwez, said his client was ‘extremely remorseful’ and that she had found the accident ‘extremely frightening and scary’.

Judge Jim Tindal said: “It just illustrates how easy it is for even the best of people to make the worst of mistakes.”

The judge described the road conditions as ‘awful’ but said Perwez had been ‘very careless indeed’ and her tyres were not in the condition they should have been.

Judge Tindal said he could not impose any other punishment than a fine and a disqualification because there was as yet no offence of causing serious injury by careless driving, arguing that it was ‘beyond’ him why Parliament had not created one.

As Perwez wiped her eyes with a tissue the judge told her: “If you are tempted to feel sorry for yourself having to find a different job just think of Mr Perry.”

He fined her £1,000 from her £17,000 savings and banned her from driving for nine months. She will not have to complete an extended driving retest.

A not guilty verdict was entered on a charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following discussions between prosecution and defence. Perwez had denied this offence.